Verity Rushworth's Emmerdale character's death

Verity Rushworth has revealed her 'Emmerdale' character Donna Windsor will meet her death in a fight with a gangster rather than after losing her battle with terminal cancer

Verity Rushworth has revealed her 'Emmerdale' character will die protecting her daughter.

The 28-year-old actress - who reprised her role as Donna Windsor in the ITV soap earlier this year - has confessed her character won't die from her battle with terminal cancer but will instead meet her demise after becoming involved in criminal activity with her bad-boy lover Ross Barton (Michael Parr) while trying to protect her daughter April (Amelia Flanagan).

Speaking about the scenes in which she and Ross go up against paedophile gangster Gary North (Fergus O'Donnell) and a deadly sniper, Verity said: "The stunt shocks a lot of viewers when they just think it's the cancer that's going to get her.

"He's a paedophile and the photographs Donna has seen are him with children, they're the main thing in Donna's mind.

"He's threatened April and the minute he does that, she knows he's a massive threat to April.

"She knows she might not have enough evidence to get him put away properly and even if she has, she won't be around to protect April.

"If she'd had a few hours to think about it she might come up with a better plan, but it's her instinct. Her mother's instinct just goes boom!"

Donna will be seen trying everything to protect her daughter and Ross and Verity is proud she filmed all of the dramatic scenes without the help of stunt double.

She explained to The Sun newspaper: "I'm scared of everything.

"I was absolutely petrified. It was really scary but we had a great team looking after us, so I decided to be really brave and go for it. No stunt double, wooooo!"